SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – An alarming number of children are being rushed to Rady Children’s Hospital for “MIS-C,” a respiratory illness that comes from COVID-19.
While the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, pediatricians around the world are seeing a rebound in another dangerous trend.
“We are right in the middle of the ‘MIS-C’ epidemic right now,” said Dr. Adriana Tremoulet, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Rady Children’s Hospital.
“MIS-C” means Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. It is an inflammatory reaction to COVID-19, which mainly affects school-age children, who two to six weeks earlier, received COVID themselves or were exposed to someone with COVID at home.
“Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, red eyes, red lips, rashes all over the body, hands and feet may have a rash or also bright red,” Dr. Tremoulet said.
Since last April, Dr. Tremoulet says there have been 57 cases of “MIS-C” at Rady Children’s Hospital. But most patients were seen in the last two months. Depending on the weather, he says it aligns exactly two to six weeks after the COVID increase in adult vacations.
“The heart itself has been affected. So the heart is a bomb and not a good bomb in many of these children,” Dr. Tremoulet said.
Children spend an average of five to nine days at Rady Children’s Hospital and many need care in the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors treat patients with large doses of anti-inflammatory drugs and, in some cases, steroids.
Dr. Tremoulet says “MIS-C” mainly affects Latino and African American children. But it is unknown whether it is because there is a higher COVID rate among these demographics or a genetic predisposition.
“Latin America is seeing a lot of Latino kids with ‘MIS-C,’ but they also see a lot of COVID. While Asian countries also have, of course, less COVID, but they don’t see any ‘MIS-,'” he said. Dr. Tremoulet.
Dr. Tremoulet asks parents to be very vigilant if they had or were exposed to COVID in recent weeks.
“Use this barometer as a parent, where you know your child is sicker than he or she would normally be and seek medical attention,” Dr. Tremoulet said.
The youngest “MIS-C” patient at Rady Children’s Hospital was two years old and the oldest was a teenager. But there have been some cases across the country where “MIS-C” occurs in young adults.
The mortality rate of “MIS-C” is 3 to 5%. But at Rady Children’s Hospital, fortunately, there were no deaths.